A Tablet for Children That Comes With Its Own Penguins

Now DreamWorks has partnered with a technology company, Fuhu, on an even more immediate way to reach itty-bitty eyeballs, a highly coveted audience: a tablet computer for children that the studio will be able to program much like a cable channel. “We could push out a new character moment every day of the year,” said Jim Mainard, head of digital strategy and new business development for DreamWorks.

DreamWorks and Fuhu, which makes the popular Nabi line of children’s tablets, plan to introduce the product, called the DreamTab, at the International Consumer Electronics Show, which starts Tuesday in Las Vegas.

The tablets will be sold with a range of DreamWorks-branded accessories, including headphones, protective bumpers and carrying cases. An eight-inch version of the DreamTab will arrive in stores in the spring. Pricing is still being determined but it will be under $300, a Fuhu spokesman said. A 12-inch version is also planned.

The partnership is a convergence of two business trends. With children as young as 2 or 3 now routinely using their parents’ iPads or smartphones — if the toddlers don’t already have their own — technology companies are racing to introduce gadgets made for smaller and smaller hands. Fuhu itself sold more than two million Nabis in 2013, and its tablets, which are primarily designed for children 6 to 11, now collectively deliver more than 20 million video streams a week.

Entertainment companies have been surprised at how speedily children have taken to tablets, sometimes forgoing TV sets altogether. As a result, DreamWorks, Disney and their competitors are searching for ways to make it easier for users to find their characters on portable devices.

Fuhu’s strategic goal with the DreamTab is differentiation — coming up with a way to persuade parents to buy its product over a competing one. DreamWorks is hoping to find a new way into the home, deepening its reputation as an innovative content creator and funneling more viewers to its programs and movies and selling more merchandise.

“By teaming with DreamWorks to create a device that will have original content — original content that is automatically and frequently updated — we are not following consumers, we are getting ahead of them,” said Jim Mitchell, Fuhu’s chief executive.

There are all sorts of branded tablets, of course. Fuhu in October introduced a special-edition Disney Nabi and Nickelodeon Nabi. But neither of those offered original and exclusive programming like the DreamTab will. Unlike some other tablets, the DreamTab will not lock children into a DreamWorks-only world. The studio’s video content and games are the most prominent, but users can also stream shows from Nickelodeon, Disney and Cartoon Network.

Nancy Bernstein, a movie producer who is in charge of creating what she calls “character moments” for the DreamTab, insists that the effort is not simply an advertising opportunity for the studio. Turn on the tablet, for instance, and penguins from the “Madagascar” franchise might greet you with a silly dance. Depending on how parents have set the timing controls, “Shrek” characters might appear in a skit to announce that it is time to power down.

“All of this animation was custom-created,” Ms. Bernstein said in a demonstration at DreamWorks’s headquarters here.

Some parents might disagree with her definition of advertising. Will dancing penguins make DreamTab users more interested in seeing “The Penguins of Madagascar” when it arrives in theaters next year? The studio, led by Jeffrey Katzenberg, would be naïve not to hope the answer is yes.

The DreamTab will also have technology that allows it to communicate wirelessly with DreamWorks-made toys. For instance, a “How to Train Your Dragon” action figure might be used to unlock games and educational experiences on the tablet. (The studio’s “How to Train Your Dragon 2” arrives in June.)

The companies will try to woo parents by including educational elements. In addition to original animation, DreamWorks will supply what it calls “educational artistic experiences”; some of the studio’s top animators will appear in videos to teach users how to draw characters like Po the panda or Toothless the dragon. To allow children to draw on the screens, each DreamTab will come with the same stylus technology that DreamWorks artists use to make movies.

“We want to transform the way kids play, learn and grow through technology,” said Mr. Mitchell of Fuhu, which is based in El Segundo, Calif.

The DreamTab’s technology is quite hefty. The devices will enable children to send instant messages and emails to their parents’ smartphones, for instance. Mr. Mitchell emphasized that his company had gone to “incredible lengths” to make the DreamTab compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, a federal law that restricts the ways that companies collect information on children under 13.

The DreamTab is not a toy. Switched into parent mode, it provides roughly the same computing power as an iPad, the companies said.

“If you give a kid less, they will spot it immediately as less, and they won’t like it,” said Mr. Mainard of DreamWorks. “We wanted to give more.”

App Smart: Basic Apps for Your New Smartphone or Tablet

Don’t panic. Here’s a selection of great, basic apps to get you going.

Let’s start with some games. Sky Gamblers: Cold War from Atypical Games has 3-D graphics so impressive that it is almost as if you have a game console in a device you can put in your pocket. This $5 iPhone or iPad game puts you in the cockpit of a number of aircraft from the Cold War era. You steer by turning your device in the air, and control various systems and weapons by tapping on icons or swiping on the screen. The game has dramatic missions, and is great fun. It’s also an ideal app to show off the power of your new device to a friend.

On Android a similar game is Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy, from the makers Namco-Bandai. It also has good graphics and the same sort of complex gameplay. It’s free, although it costs up to $3 to unlock different missions and aircraft. There also is Air Supremacy on iOS for $1, but I feel the Cold War version is better.

For an alternative to a war-themed game, try Infinity Blade 3 on iOS and Dragonslayer on Android. These are fantasy games with amazing 3-D graphics that place you on an adventure in a mystical land with just your wits and sword skills to save you. Infinity Blade 3, which is also perhaps the most graphically wonderful game you’ll see on an iOS device, costs $3. Dragonslayer is free on Android.

You probably have heard of Angry Birds, a wonderfully odd puzzle game where you catapult moody avians to destroy buildings made by evil pigs. The latest, Angry Birds Star Wars 2, is free on both iOS and Android and is hilarious to play. Its puzzles and hidden levels have kept me amused for too many hours to count. There is a Windows 8 version too that will cost you a dollar.

For a different puzzler, check out Candy Crush Saga, which has been downloaded half a billion times. It’s a bit like the classic Tetris, with cute graphics and simple but addictive gameplay. It’s free on iOS and Android.

With social networking apps you can experience the thrill of sharing news or photos or even video about what you’re up to with the world in real time. Twitter (free on iOS, Android, Windows Phone), Facebook (free on iOS, Android and Windows) and Instagram (free on iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8) are all worth checking out. Again, these apps come with a warning — you may use them much more than you expected.

But don’t forget that smartphones and tablets have more uses than merely to gossip or play games. How about using them to get you from A to B? Waze is a powerful GPS app to try. It replaces that old device that you used to suction onto your car’s windshield with a modern mapping system that is constantly improved by its community of users.

As well as the usual tricks of showing a map and speaking turn-by-turn directions, Waze offers real-time traffic data and alerts for incidents like traffic jams or accidents. The app has some quirks, like requiring a network connection for live data, thus eating up your mobile data allowance, and its cutesy graphics may not tickle your fancy. But it is free, and available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

For more real-time data for the world around you, download Layar or Junaio to tap into some of the same “augmented reality” vibe that Google’s Glass headset is championing. These apps turn your device into a digital window.

You hold your device up and the screen will show a view through the camera’s lens. Superimposed on top of this view is all sorts of additional data you select from a library of different “layers,” including information like the identity of boats you can see on the ocean, or photos that Twitter users nearby have shared.

Layar (iOS, Android) and Junaio (iOS, Android) are free and may amaze you with the amount of location information you can find within moments. But this technology is quite new, so be prepared for a bit of a learning curve with the apps and occasionally unreliable performance.

Finally, check out the amazing power of Shazam. This app listens to music you hear in public, as you sit in a coffee shop, for example, and automatically identifies the tune for you. It’s magical to see in action, and it even offers links to buy the music if you really like it. Shazam is free on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

These, of course, are just the beginning. There are many thousands more out there — many free. Do some of your own exploring, and you’ll find apps for everything. Just be careful about spending surprising amounts of money on in-app purchases, particularly in games.

QUICK CALL

Cut the Rope 2, the sequel to the first runaway hit, is new for $1 on iOS. It’s a sort of puzzle game with timing and physics-based elements, and it’s great.

Q&A: Printing From an Android Tablet

Android Tablet

To the Printer

Q. Is it possible to print from my Nexus tablet to my home printer?

A. Third-party printing apps in the Google Play store offer a few ways to print from an Android tablet, but Google has its own solution as well: Google Cloud Print. It connects a home printer to the web, where web-connected devices like Android tablets and smartphones can see and use it.

Although the technology works a bit more smoothly with printer models classified as “Cloud Ready,” you can also use an older printer — as long as that printer is connected to your computer. You need a free Google account and the company’s Chrome browser installed on the computer that is connected to the printer. You also need Google’s Cloud Print app from the Play store on your tablet or smartphone to manage print jobs and printer options.

A bit of setup is involved before you can start printing, including registering the printer with the Google Cloud Print service using the Chrome browser. You can find instructions, answers to common questions, a list of Cloud Ready printer models and troubleshooting guides at support.google.com/cloudprint.

If you have updated your device to Android 4.4 (KitKat), a built-in printing function is included; the Talk Android site has a how-to video.

Making Web Pages

Easier to See

Q. How can I make web pages appear bigger in Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 — without pressing the Control and Plus (+) keys each time?

A. Click on the Tools icon on the far right side of the screen (or press the Alt and the X keys) to open the menu. On the Tools menu is a Zoom option. From the Zoom submenu, you can select a preset size (up to 400 percent) or create a custom size for viewing the pages. When you select a new size, you should see the contents of page immediately get larger. The View menu in Internet Explorer also has the Zoom controls and an option for increasing the text size.

Some sites may set their own type sizes. You can usually override this by returning to the Tools menu icon and selecting Internet Options from the menu. Click the General tab in the Internet Options box and then click the Accessibility button in the lower-right corner. Turn on the check box next to “Ignore font sizes specified on webpages” and click O.K.

TIP OF THE WEEK Facebook’s privacy settings have changed frequently over the years and it may be hard to discern what your profile looks like to friends or to members of the public who are browsing Facebook. If you want to observe what others can see on your Facebook profile, log into your account and click your name in the blue bar at the top of the page.

When you land on your Timeline page, click the settings arrow next to the Activity Log button and choose “View As...” from the menu. Facebook then displays what a nonfriend would see on your page. You can also use the “View as Specific Person” option at the top of the page to check out what any of your friends can see.

Click the “x” at the top of the preview page to go back to your regular Facebook view. If you saw things you would rather keep private from the public or certain groups of friends, click the gear-shaped settings icon in the top-right corner of your page and select Privacy Settings to make the adjustments.

Google Plus has similar controls for displaying different amounts of information on your public profile. To make changes, log into your Google Plus account, click on the Home menu and select Settings and then click on “Profile and privacy.” J. D. BIERSDORFER

Personal Tech invites questions about computer-based technology to QandA@nytimes.com. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually.

Q&A: Editing Microsoft Word Files on an Android Tablet

Q. I don’t have a subscription to the Office 365 site, so what’s the easiest way to read and edit Microsoft Word documents on an Android tablet?

A. The Google Play store has several apps for working with Microsoft Word files. When shopping for an app, check the feature list carefully, as some free programs allow you only to view files on your Android device, not edit them.

Apps that offer document editing include the $15 full versions of Documents To Go or OfficeSuite Pro 7, the free Kingsoft Office or the free Olive Office Premium. Features and user reviews vary by app, so study up before downloading to make sure you get everything you want.

Quickoffice, another popular app for working with Word files, was recently withdrawn from the Google Play store, but for a reason. Last year, Google bought the company behind the software, and last month it made Quickoffice free for Android and iOS users. The new Quickoffice app requires a free Google account and stores files online with Google Drive. The new version does not support online syncing and storage to other services like Dropbox, as previous versions did.

Using Folders in the Safari Bookmarks Bar

Q. How do I make a drop-down menu of related bookmarks on my Safari toolbar in Mac OS X 10.8?

A. Safari, Apple’s browser for the Mac, can store folders of favorites (as well as links to single sites) in the “bookmarks bar” below the address/search box. When you have a folder in the bookmarks bar, clicking a folder name reveals a vertical menu with all the bookmarks stored in that folder.

If you have bookmarked sites in Safari that you want to add to the bookmarks bar, start by making a folder. Right-click (or hold down the Mac’s Control key and click) in an empty spot on Safari’s bookmarks bar area and choose New Folder. You can enter a name for the new folder right there.

Next, right-click or Control-click the new folder and choose Edit Contents. This opens the Bookmarks window in Safari, with the Bookmarks Bar icon selected and a list of the program’s bookmarks underneath it in the left pane of the window. From here, you can drag the bookmarks you want to add from the left pane into your new folder in the center of the screen. (If you turn on the Auto-Click checkbox in the Bookmarks window, all the bookmarks stored in that folder will open in separate browser tabs when you click the folder’s name in the Safari window.)

As an alternative method, you can also create a new folder and open up the Bookmarks window all at once — just go to the Bookmarks menu in Safari and choose Add Bookmark Folder. When the Bookmarks window opens, name your untitled folder in the left pane, drag in the desired bookmarks and then drag the new folder onto the Bookmarks Bar icon at the top of the column.

Once you close the Bookmarks window (click the small book icon in the Safari toolbar, or go to the Bookmarks menu and choose Hide All Bookmarks), your new folder should be waiting for you in the bookmarks bar. Click it and select the site you want to visit from the menu.

App Smart: Learning to Read, With the Help of a Tablet

One of the most comprehensive apps for teaching reading is a free iPad app called Learn With Homer (not the Greek one or Mr. Simpson, you’ll be pleased to hear). It’s a set of lessons and games presented with bright cartoon graphics and amusing sounds.

Using animations and spoken guidance, the app leads children to sound letters that appear on the screen and shows how letters make words, using examples like “alligator” and “ant.” The app’s learning sections are interspersed with game sections, and there is a listening section where children read and hear stories. Completing a lesson or story is rewarded with the chance to draw something on the screen or to record an answer to a question about the story. The app’s best feature is that it keeps these pictures and recordings, because it is fun to look back on them.

The app’s interface feels child-friendly and is easy to use thanks to on-screen cues and spoken instructions. Children could most likely use it on their own — though an adult may need to lend a hand with some controls, like the drawing interface. The app also has great attention to detail. For example, in the section that reinforces learning letter sounds there is a convincing animation of a child mouthing the sounds on the screen.

My main problems with Learn With Homer are that it moves too slowly in places and that younger children may lose interest. Buying extra lessons via in-app purchases could also be expensive, since they each cost $2 or more.

For a simpler reading app, the free Kids Reading (Preschool) app on Android is a great option. The app’s first section helps children learn to blend letter sounds into full words, through a cute game with a tortoise. The game animates the tortoise walking along slowly, sounding out each letter in a short word as he moves. The child can click on sneakers to make him move faster, which then sounds the word faster, or click on a skateboard to sound the word in real time.

A “try reading” section lets children practice reading and saying short words with a simple matching game. And the “make words” option has the child spotting the right-sounding letter to complete a word puzzle. This app has clear sounds, and many children will love its simplicity. But for more words you do need to pay $3 for the full Kids Learn To Read version.

Montessori Crosswords, $3 on iOS, is more sophisticated. This app’s main feature is a game in which children drag letters from an alphabet list onto a very simple crossword grid. Each word on the grid is accompanied by a picture hint. Tapping on this makes the app say the word aloud. Depending on the settings, words can be made of fewer or, if you choose, more sounds, which makes the puzzles more challenging. To keep children interested, getting words right delivers an interactive graphic, like one of shooting stars, that reacts to screen touches.

Compared with its peers, this app has a narrow range of activities, which may limit how long it remains useful. It also probably works best under adult supervision — particularly since the app’s main menu is a little confusing.

For children who have learned to recognize words by themselves, and yet would benefit from guided reading experiences, there’s Booksy. This free app, for iOS and Android, is best thought of as a traditional high-quality children’s reading book with added digital powers. For example, as well as displaying a page of text and well-drawn images, it reads the text aloud. Tapping on any word — even in the labels, for example in a drawing of a whale — will make the app say the word clearly. The app can also record a child reading aloud automatically, then e-mail the audio files directly to you so you can keep track of progress. This feature may seem a little creepy, but you can turn it off.

Booksy comes with two free books, and more are available through in-app purchases. There are about 30 titles for around $1 each. Each book has a different reading difficulty level, and many of them are also available in Spanish. You can lock the bookstore on iOS to prevent children from getting in, but smarter children may spot the parental controls and unlock it again. On Android there is a better “adult question” lock, but on this platform some of the app’s screen space is, unfortunately, taken up with navigation buttons.

Remember, your enthusiasm for reading can be an important example for your children — so why not play with these apps alongside them?

Quick Call

Dots is a simple game that has already had a lot of success on the iPhone — to play it is as easy as connecting the dots, yet it’s fiendishly addictive. Now it’s on Android, and free.

Q&A: Ways to Watch Live TV on a Laptop or Tablet

Watching Live TV on the Go

Q. Is there a way to watch broadcast television channels live on a laptop or iPad without network apps or streaming from Web sites?

A. If you live within range of the broadcast signals from local television stations, a digital TV tuner accessory could do the job. These small TV tuner cards, which usually include a small telescopic antenna, connect to a laptop’s USB jack or the iPad’s connection port. You typically need to install a program or app for viewing and navigating the live television channels, too.

USB-based TV tuners can cost $50 or less from several manufacturers on sites like Amazon.com, Best Buy and TigerDirect. Compatible iPad tuners tend to cost around $100. Belkin and Elgato are among the companies selling iPad TV tuners that work with the Dyle Mobile TV system; Dyle service is not available nationwide yet and channels vary by area, so check the coverage map on the company’s Web site first (www.dyle.tv). Elgato also sells its own EyeTV software for Mac OS X that works with third-party TV tuners.

Other options include buying a Slingbox device ($180 or $300 at slingbox.com) to place-shift your programs over the Internet from your television at home to your laptop or iPad, or signing up for the Aereo live-television service (aereo.com). Aereo, now available in New York and a few other cities, costs $8 a month.

Spotting a Text Message Fraud

Q. I recently got a phone text message saying my “Google profile had been hacked” and asking me to text back when I am ready to get a “reactivate” number. Does this mean Gmail has been compromised?

A. Although Google does send text messages to your registered mobile number for security purposes (like account-verification codes) when you log in from new devices, messages that ask you to text or call back are fraudulent. Instead of replying or supplying any sort of personal information, forward the message to your wireless carrier’s number for spam reporting — many carriers use the number 7726. Google has more information on the issue.

You can check your account for any suspicious activity by logging in from a Web browser and clicking Account from the menu next to your profile picture. On the settings screen, click Security and then Recent Activity to see a record of your Gmail account’s use on your computers and devices set up with the service. If you do not recognize any of the sessions listed, change your password right away.

The Gmail Security Checklist on Google’s site has more advice. As for general online safety, Google’s official blog has recently been running a series of helpful tips, offering advice on making strong passwords, keeping home wireless networks secure and protecting Android gadgets.

TIP OF THE WEEK Keyboards on mobile devices are small and cramped compared with a regular computer and it may seem like keys are missing — like those for accented characters or special symbols. With both the Android and iOS operating systems, however, you can often find additional characters on the keyboard simply by pressing down on the virtual key for an extra second or two.

Holding down on the vowel keys (and certain consonants like “n” and “c”) reveals alternate versions of those letters with diacritics like the umlaut, tilde or acute accent. Lingering on the dollar sign reveals several international monetary symbols — including those for the yen, euro and pound sterling — and is faster than jumping to the symbol keyboard to get the same characters. On an Android device, you can also get fractions and superscript numerals by pressing and holding the number keys.

Bits Blog: With No New iPad, Tablet Market Takes a Dip

Bits Blog: From North Korea With Love: a Tablet With No Internet Access

Gadgetwise: A Tablet Communicator for the Tech-Averse

Older people are often intimidated, or more likely annoyed, by much of modern technology, even though it can help them stay in touch with friends, family and caregivers.

The best gadget for an older person may be a tablet, because it is easier to handle than a laptop. The Claris Companion, a new tablet, takes that idea a step further, because it is monitored and configured by a caregiver or family member who decides how many features the tablet will have, putting on only those that are needed. The settings can be changed remotely from the caregiver’s computer at any time.

When not in use, the tablet functions as a digital picture frame, showing a slide show of photos. The images are loaded by the person who configures the tablet. A hitch is that photos need to be loaded one at a time; the company says an upgrade is coming soon.

Below the pictures are large buttons for the tablet’s features, like a “call me” button that sends an e-mail to a designated person, one to read and write e-mail, one for an exercise routine and one for an events calendar.

The device can also be programmed to beep with reminders to take medicine, and to have a daily check-in which fires off an automated e-mail to family.

At the heart of the Claris Companion is a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, but it is hidden in an wooden case of engineered bamboo to make it easier to handle (it also makes it look as if it belongs to a cartoon hillbilly). It sits on a hefty wooden charger stand.

There are two models and several pricing plans. They begin at $550 for at Wi-Fi only model, with a monthly subscription fee of $40. By the end of July, a 4G model that works over the mobile phone network will be $650 and $50 a month for unlimited service, Claris said. ROY FURCHGOTT

Bits: Google Debuts an Updated Nexus 7 Tablet

Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Choosing a Windows Tablet

What’s the difference between Windows 8 and Windows RT on a tablet PC? Can I run Microsoft Office programs on either version?

Windows RT and Windows 8 share certain features like touch-screen control, the Internet Explorer 10 browser and Microsoft’s apps for e-mail, messaging, photos and calendar appointments. Windows RT was designed primarily for tablets and other devices that use the less-powerful ARM processors, and the system lacks certain features found in the more productivity-oriented Windows 8, like Windows Media Player and Remote Desktop.

Windows RT devices come with a selection of apps (including Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 RT, a touch-based variation on the standard suite). However, if you want to install new programs on a Windows RT tablet, you can only do so by downloading the apps from the online Windows Store. While Windows RT computers start up quickly and have security software turned on by default, some people may find the streamlined system too limited compared with a Windows 8 tablet or a computer.

Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro (basically, the “Home” and “Professional” versions) can run on a greater range of hardware and processors, including tablets, ultrabooks, laptops, tablet/laptop hybrids and even all-in-one desktop PCs. With Windows 8, you can install new software from disks or sources other than the Windows Store, including the standard desktop edition of Microsoft Office and programs you may have used with a previous version of Windows.

If you need versatility and a wider variety of programs, a Windows 8 tablet is probably the better option, even though you may pay more for hardware. Microsoft has a PC Selector page that asks a series of questions and suggests certain tablet models based on your answers.

Your Money: For Car Renters, Signing on the Electronic Tablet May Mean Trouble

Before her most recent trip last spring, she learned that she was covered through her personal auto policy and her credit card. So she made sure the Dollar Rent a Car clerk with the friendly, back-home demeanor knew she did not want any coverage. “She went back to her big screen, which I could not see, and she clickety-clickety-clicked,” said Ms. McKinnon, a 66-year-old retired nurse practitioner. Then, as the clerk instructed, Ms. McKinnon signed her name on the electronic tablet.

But 15 days later, when she returned the silver Ford Focus, Ms. McKinnon said she was handed a bill for $944, nearly twice what she expected to pay. She was charged an extra $23.95 a day for the loss damage waiver, an option that isn’t technically insurance, but that generally “waives” the renter’s responsibility for loss or damage to the vehicle.

“I was instantly furious,” she said. She may have even kicked a steel pole. The manager was called, but never came. Finally, Ms. McKinnon, still enraged, left to catch her flight home.

What’s curious about her story is that it seems to be occurring again and again at Dollar Rent a Car counters across the country. Just last month, something strikingly similar happened to Chris Hughes and his family when they traveled to Orlando, Fla., to visit Disney World, and rented a Dodge Avenger at the airport there. Ditto for Jay Seibert and his family, who flew to Denver in December to spend time on the slopes in Colorado ski country. “I practice insurance law,” Mr. Seibert said, adding that he explicitly told the agent that he didn’t need or want the coverage, “which made it all the more ironic that they want to saddle us with these costs.”

The problem, in all three cases, is that the customers said they unwittingly signed for the coverage on the electronic tablet even though they had verbally declined it. As for Dollar, which was acquired by Hertz last year for $2.3 billion, a spokeswoman said that the company complied with all laws and denied allegations that it sold customers products they didn’t want.

But at least a hundred customers, according to one consumer lawyer, contend that’s precisely what happened (mostly at Dollar, though a smattering said they had experienced the same thing at Thrifty, a sister rental company). The lawyer, John Mattes, said he had heard from the consumers over the last year and a half. Four of them, including Ms. McKinnon, are at the center of two lawsuits against Dollar Thrifty seeking class-action status. Ms. McKinnon’s complaint, which was amended this week and filed in the Federal District Court in Northern California, alleges that the company engaged in unfair and deceptive business practices. A second separate complaint, filed in November with the Federal District Court in Colorado, is also still pending, according to Alan Mansfield, a consumer attorney in San Diego, who is working with Mr. Mattes on that case and representing the plaintiffs in the California case. The spokeswoman for Dollar Thrifty said the company intended to defend the cases vigorously.

Mr. Mattes said he started collecting victims’ complaints through his Web site, after he heard from two consumers with similar stories within a span of several days. “In my business, one incident can be written off as a mistake, two is a little too coincidental, and when you see three, you say, ‘Hey, what’s going on here?’ ” he said. And he added that he continued to hear from consumers every week.

With the exception of joining a class-action lawsuit, what sort of recourse would a consumer have in this situation? Consumer advocates say any effort should start with a letter to the company, and, if that doesn’t work (it didn’t here) to try lodging a dispute with the credit card issuer. But some Dollar customers tried that with little success: Dollar sent the credit card companies receipts with their signatures. A spokeswoman for Bank of America said it was bound by Visa and MasterCard regulations on disputed chargebacks, and, if the merchant has the customer signature accepting a charge, there’s not much more it can do.

As a result, this situation is likely to quickly devolve into a case of “he said, she said.” In a letter to Ms. McKinnon, Dollar explained that while its agents were capable of making mistakes, the company strongly suggested that clients review the contract carefully before signing to accept. And the records indicated that she initialed to accept the “loss damage waiver” charge.

But even here, there’s the issue of potentially confusing language. Rental customers might say out loud that they want to decline insurance coverage, but then they may see something on the electronic screen that asks them if they agree to the loss damage “waiver.” You can’t blame a tired or inexperienced traveler for thinking that by clicking to accept the “waiver” they are waiving insurance, when, in fact, it means they are accepting that type of coverage.

Perhaps these consumers should have caught the errors on their receipts before they put the keys in the ignition, or they should  have been more vigilant about what they were signing on the electronic tablet. The customers I spoke with all said they did as instructed, taking the agents at their word.

“We did not expect that, while the counter agent was smiling and verbally assuring us that we would not be charged for options that we had affirmatively declined and did not want, he simultaneously and apparently was including those very charges,” Mr. Seibert said.

In fact, if travelers believe they were intentionally misled, they can seek punitive damages through small claims court.  Alexander Anolik, a travel lawyer and co-author of “Traveler’s Rights: Your Legal Guide to Fair Treatment and Full Value (Sphinx Publishing, 2003),” said to sue for misrepresentation, fraud or unfair business practices, all of which are torts and eligible for punitive damages. That may at least make the case worth your time and effort; Mr. Anolik said to ask for three times the amount you lost in damages.

“I am a judge in California small claims,” Mr. Anolik said, “so I believe in this non-attorney-led, quick, inexpensive means of redress.”

News Corp. Has a Tablet for Schools

On Wednesday at the SXSWedu conference in Austin, Tex., Mr. Klein, the former chancellor of New York City schools and the current chief executive of Amplify, News Corporation’s fledgling education division, will take the stage for a surprising announcement. Amplify will not sell just its curriculum on existing tablets, but will also offer the Amplify Tablet, its own 10-inch Android tablet for K-12 schoolchildren.

In addition to tablets and curriculum, Amplify will also provide schools with infrastructure to store students’ data.

“When I left I was convinced of two things,” Mr. Klein said of his tenure as chancellor of New York schools. “If we didn’t see a dramatic technological change, we were not going to be able to move this country forward,” and “second of all, that the private sector had to get much, much more involved.”

An early look at the Amplify tablet revealed a sleek touch screen with material floating against a simple background. If a child’s attention wanders, a stern “eyes on teacher” prompt pops up. A quiz uses emoticons of smiley and sad faces so teachers can instantly gauge which students understand the lesson and which need help.

“We wanted to use the language of the Web,” said Stephen Smyth, president of Amplify Access, the division that produces the tablet, which is manufactured by Asus.

At first, the tablet will be targeted at middle-school children. It uses what educators call a “blended learning” model that mixes technology with old-fashioned teaching. Amplify designed the tablet so that schools can provide each student with one to take home each night.

Outside the classroom, children can use it to play games, like one in which Tom Sawyer battles the Brontë sisters.

“There’s a huge opportunity if you can get kids excited about educational games,” Mr. Klein said. “You can change the learning curve.”

In November, Amplify began testing its tablet in hundreds of public schools nationwide, and in December it explained the venture to investors. The introduction on Wednesday began a full-court press by Amplify’s sales force. A preloaded tablet, training and customer care (largely from former teachers) starts at $299, along with a two-year subscription for $99 a year. A higher-end Amplify Tablet Plus, for students who do not have wireless access at home, comes with a 4G data plan and costs $349.

Amplify estimates that many school districts could use grants from the Education Department’s Race to the Top program, which brings technology and personalized learning to schools.

“We understand technology and we understand education,” Mr. Klein said. “A lot of people who understand technology don’t understand education.”

In the eight years Mr. Klein served as chancellor of New York schools, he pushed educators to adopt new technology, often drawing accolades and controversy along the way. He remains a prominent voice in education reform, and Amplify carries with it both his friendships and clashes with educators.

“Joel was always talking about how to eliminate teachers and make it about a child in front of a computer screen,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers.

(“Did textbooks lead to larger classrooms and fewer teachers? No,” Mr. Klein says.)

Now that he is in the private sector, some of Mr. Klein’s advocacy work presents a conflict, said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. Last year Mr. Klein wrote, with Condoleezza Rice, a Council on Foreign Relations report that called the state of United States schools a “grave national security threat.” He contributed $25,000 to a coalition that supported specific candidates for the Los Angeles Board of Education elections held on Tuesday. (A News Corporation subsidiary also contributed to candidates.)

H.P. Slate 7 Tablet Using Android Is Introduced

Hewlett-Packard has introduced the Slate 7, a $169 tablet powered by the Android operating system, a centerpiece of the company’s effort to expand in mobile devices and reduce its dependence on the shrinking personal computer market.

The Slate 7 is H.P.’s latest foray into the consumer tablet market. It follows the failure in 2011 of its WebOS-based TouchPad, which the company stopped selling after just seven weeks, citing poor demand.

Powered by Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Slate 7 offers Google services including search functions, YouTube and Gmail, as well as Beats Audio for improved sound, H.P. said. The 13-ounce device includes access to apps and digital content through Google Play, and cameras on both sides of the seven-inch screen.

H.P. said it expected American sales of the Slate 7 to begin in April, and said the product offers a “compelling entry point” for people looking to buy tablets.

Google’s Nexus 7 tablet costs $199, as does Amazon.com’s Kindle Fire HD.

H.P. also makes a business tablet, the ElitePad, which is powered by Microsoft’s Windows 8. WebOS had been developed by Palm, which H.P. bought in 2010.

The Slate 7 is part of a multiyear turnaround plan by Meg Whitman, the H.P. chief.

As Shoppers Hop From Tablet to PC to Phone, Retailers Try to Adapt

“I do use the iPad to browse sites,” Mr. O’Neil said, but when it comes time to close the deal, he finds it easier to do on a computer.

Many online retailers had visions of holiday shoppers lounging beneath the Christmas tree with their mobile devices in hand, making purchases. The size of the average order on tablets, particularly iPads, tends to be bigger than on PCs. So retailers poured money and marketing into mobile Web sites and apps with rich images and, they thought, easy checkout.

But while visits to e-commerce sites and apps on tablets and phones have nearly doubled since last year, consumers like Mr. O’Neil are more frequently using multiple devices to shop. In many cases, they are more comfortable making the final purchase on a computer, with its bigger screen and keyboard. So retailers are trying to figure out how to appeal to a shopper who may use a cellphone to research products, a tablet to browse the options and a computer to buy.

“I’ve been yelling at customers for two years, saying, ‘Mobile, mobile, mobile,’ ” said Jason Spero, director of mobile sales and strategy at Google. “But the funny thing is, now we’re going to say: ‘Don’t put mobile in a silo. It’s also about the desktop.’ ”

The challenges are daunting, though. It is technically difficult to track consumers as they hop from phone to computer to tablet and back again. This means customers who, say, fill shopping carts on their tablets have to do all the work again on their PCs or other devices. The biggest obstacle, retailers say, is that the tools used to track shoppers on computers — cookies, or bundles of data stored in Web browsers — don’t transfer across devices.

Instead, retailers are figuring out how to sync the experience in other ways, like prompting shoppers to log in on each device. And being able to track people across devices gives retailers more insight into how they shop.

The retailers’ efforts are backed by research. While one-quarter of the visits to e-commerce sites occur on mobile devices, only around 15 percent of purchases do, according to data from I.B.M. According to Google, 85 percent of online shoppers start searching on one device — most often a mobile phone — and make a purchase on another.

At eBags, customers are shopping on their tablets in the evening and returning on their work computers the next day. But eBags has not yet synced the shoppers across devices, so customers must build their shopping carts from scratch if they switch devices.

“That is a blind spot with a lot of sites,” said Peter Cobb, co-founder of eBags. “It is a requirement moving forward.”

At eBay, one-third of the purchases involve mobile devices at some point, even if the final purchase is made on a computer.

At eBay, once shoppers log in on a device, they do not need to log in again. Their information, like shipping and credit card details and saved items, syncs across all their devices. If an eBay shopper is interested in a certain handbag, and saves that search on a computer, eBay will send alerts to her cellphone when a new handbag arrives or an auction is about to end.

“They might discover an item on a phone or tablet, do a saved-search push alert later on some other screen and eventually close on the Web site,” said Steve Yankovich, who runs eBay Mobile. “People are buying and shopping and consuming potentially every waking moment of the day.”

ModCloth, an e-commerce site for women’s clothes, said that while a quarter of its visits come from mobile devices, people are not yet buying there in the same proportion, though they are becoming more comfortable with checking out on those devices.

“She’s visiting us more on the phone, but she’s actually transacting somewhere else,” said Sarah Rose, vice president of product at ModCloth.

For example, a shopper will skim through new arrivals on her phone while on the bus and add items to her wish list, then visit that evening on her tablet to make a purchase, Ms. Rose said.

Gadgetwise Blog: The Nabi Jr.: A Tablet for Children

Arriving by mid-December, Nabi Jr. is a 5-inch, 8-gigabyte $99 Android tablet that can do double-duty as a baby monitor or a karaoke machine. Educational apps, games and videos are pre-loaded. It has a single rotating front and back camera.

The maker of the device, Fuhu, brags: No cartridges; no AA batteries and includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. If the tablet is successful, it could mean serious competition for toy-based options from LeapFrog and VTech.

The Nabi Jr. has its own app store, with the promise of being able to load apps from the Amazon Appstore. If so, this could be a major advantage; previous Nabi tablets have made it very hard to download mainstream apps that don’t go through the Fuhu tollbooth.

Fuhu is also selling add-ons, and this is where things get interesting. The add-ons include an infrared night vision camera with a remote zoom for use as a baby monitor. When synced to Fuhu’s cloud server, you can use a second Android phone to have your own video baby monitor on steroids — with two-way communication abilities, a room temperature display, sound level meter and a low-battery alert. Other add-ons include a karaoke machine that plugs into your big screen through the HDMI cable, and a cash register simulator will be available in toy stores mid-December. Add $30 for the 16-gigabyte model. Accessories will be available in February 2013.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: December 5, 2012

An earlier version of this post misstated when the Nabi Jr. tablet would go on sale. It is expected to be available by mid-December, not January.

Gadgetwise Blog: To Choose a Tablet, First Choose an Operating System

Since the iPad was introduced in 2010, tablets have gone from “Who needs it?” to “How did I live without it?” They are lightweight and easier to tote than laptops, but offer many of the same Web browsing capabilities. They are generally better used for consuming content, like movies, music and books, than for creating content. So while they are useful for e-mail, it can be a challenge to use one as a machine for work — although it can be done.

Probably the first thing to consider is what operating system you use for your other devices. Using your tablet to share photos, music and movies with your other household computers and phones is easiest if the tablet runs on the same system, whether it is Apple, Android or something else.

If you plan on using it independently of your other machines, then the operating system is not a concern, except for one thing: apps. Those are the small computer programs that add features to tablets and phones. Apple still has the greatest number of apps and generally gets the new ones first. Android has fewer but is catching up. The Windows Surface tablet is still new enough that its associated app store has not fully developed.

There are two ways to connect a tablet to the Internet: Wi-Fi and cellular phone networks. Models that can use a phone network let you connect wherever you may be, but are generally more expensive and tend to have less battery life. Tablets that use Wi-Fi can connect only through an open hotspot (or through a phone that has hotspot capability). For instance, an iPad with 16 gigabytes of memory costs $500, but the same tablet with a phone network connection is $630 — and you will have to buy data service for it.

When it comes to tablet size, to thine own self be true. Are you more likely to use a tablet that is easy to carry, like the iPad Mini, with a 7.9-inch screen, or one with a bigger, easier-to-see screen, like the Samsung Nexus 10 Android tablet with a 10-inch screen?

If you object to typing on a glass screen, many tablets have accessory keypads, like the one you can buy with the $600 Windows Surface tablet. Other tablets with Bluetooth capability can often link with a generic keyboard, which can be had for around $50.

It’s worth checking the speed of the tablet’s processor if you are going to watch a lot of video — faster is better, of course. To see how much storage you will need, check how much space your music, movies, photos and documents take up on your computer now. Then ask yourself if you need to cart all that stuff around. Storage can be expensive.

Texas Instruments Cuts 1,700 Jobs and Winds Down Tablet Chips

Texas Instruments said in September it would halt costly investments in the increasingly competitive smartphone and tablet chip business, leading Wall Street to speculate that part of the company's processor unit, called OMAP, could be sold.

The layoffs are equivalent to nearly 5 percent of the Austin, Texas-based company's global workforce.

"A sale would have been better than a restructuring but a restructuring is certainly better than nothing," Sanford Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon said.

TI has been under pressure in mobile processors, where it has lost ground to rival Qualcomm Inc. Leading smartphone makers Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd have been developing their own chips instead of buying them from suppliers like TI.

Instead of competing in phones and tablets, TI wants to sell its OMAP processors in markets that require less investment, like industrial clients like carmakers.

TI is expected to continue selling existing tablet and phone processors for products like Amazon.Com Inc's Kindle tablets for as long as demand remains, but stop developing new chips.

"This year, the Kindle runs on the OMAP 4 and next year's Kindle is slated, we believe, for OMAP 5. We believe that program is well along to completion and do not expect that the termination of OMAP will disrupt those plans," said Longbow Research analyst JoAnne Feeney.

Amazon had reportedly been in talks to buy the mobile part of OMAP.

TI said it expects to take charges of about $325 million related to the job cuts and other cost reduction measures, most of which will be accounted for in the current quarter. Its previously announced financial targets for the fourth quarter do not include these costs, TI said.

The company, which has 35,000 employees around the world, expects annualized savings of about $450 million by the end of 2013 from the action.

TI shares rose to $29 in after-hours trading after closing at $28.76, down 2 percent on Nasdaq.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew in New York and Noel Randewich in San Francisco; editing by Carol Bishopric)

With New Tablet, Microsoft Faces a Balancing Act

The delicate balancing act Microsoft must perform was apparent at two events it held on Thursday in New York to introduce two major products. At the first event, it showcased devices made by Samsung, Dell and other hardware partners that run Windows 8, a version of Microsoft’s flagship operating system redesigned to accommodate touch-based devices like tablets.

An hour later, in a different area of the same location, a pier on the Hudson River, Microsoft focused entirely on Surface, a Windows tablet of its own design and the first computer the company has made in its 37-year history.

The separate events allowed Microsoft to spotlight devices made by others without awkwardly upstaging them with Surface. But executives left little doubt as to which computer was their favorite. At the Surface event, Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft’s Windows division, described the product as the best tablet and laptop he had ever used. (The company is selling a magnetically attached cover for Surface that doubles as a notebook-size keyboard.)

“We decided to do Surface because it’s the ultimate expression of Windows,” Mr. Sinofsky said. “It’s a stage.”

Microsoft saw a need for a major change in both the design of Windows and its strategy for delivering it to customers after the huge success of Apple in the tablet market. The iPad is already stealing sales from laptop computers, and Apple’s chief executive has predicted that the tablets will one day outsell PCs.

But Microsoft’s move into hardware has perturbed many of its traditional partners, with implications that are still unclear. The company was to start selling Surface at midnight on Friday at about 60 Microsoft-operated stores in North America, a move that has annoyed retailers who will be deprived of a high-profile electronics device backed by a big marketing campaign. Prices start at $500.

There is grumbling, too, a lot of it private, from Microsoft’s hardware partners about the company competing with them for sales. But there aren’t many compelling software alternatives to which these partners can turn.

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner, said Windows 8 was too important for the company to leave to its partners, who often churn out uninspired designs. “This is Windows the way Microsoft wants you to see it,” he said of Surface, which has an eye-catching magnesium case. (The first version of Surface will run a variation of Windows 8 called Windows RT that cannot run older Windows applications.)

Things could get even trickier in the future. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, has left open the possibility of making more hardware products, with analyst speculation focusing on a possible smartphone.

In a rare joint interview on Wednesday, Mr. Ballmer and Michael Dell, the chief executive of Dell, one of Microsoft’s oldest partners in the PC business, played down any fallout from Microsoft’s move into hardware. Mr. Ballmer said Mr. Dell was the first person he showed a Surface device to before announcing the product in June. He said he flew to Chicago with one of the devices to meet Mr. Dell, who was on his way to Lagos, Nigeria.

Mr. Ballmer said it was important for him to explain the device to Mr. Dell in person because he expected his initial reaction to be: “What the heck? This is different.”

Mr. Dell, for his part, said he did not have a problem with Microsoft making Surface. “As I’ve understood Steve’s plans here, if Surface helps Windows 8 succeed, that’s going to be good for Windows, good for Dell and good for our customers,” he said.

Of course, if Surface flops, Microsoft’s partners will probably find it easier to ignore. The company still has to convince customers, including businesses, that the product is as compelling and reliable as Apple’s iPad, which has had several years to develop.

Rich Adduci, chief information officer of Boston Scientific, a medical device company, has more than 20,000 PCs at his company using older Windows. But he has also deployed more than 5,500 iPads to sales representatives and other employees.

“Candidly, Surface is going to have a long, hard road ahead of it, given the marketplace and how it has matured with iPad and Android devices,” Mr. Adduci said. “There’s a very high bar for Surface that it’s going to have to hit initially for it to have a real chance.”

State of the Art: Microsoft Unveils the Surface, Its First Tablet - Review

That’s the sort of choice Microsoft is asking you to make with the spectacularly designed, wildly controversial Surface tablet.

Now, for the very first tablet it has ever manufactured (in fact, its very first computer), Microsoft could have just made another iPad ripoff. But it aimed much higher. It wanted to build a tablet that’s just as good at creating work as it is at organizing it.

On the hardware front, Microsoft has succeeded brilliantly. Read the specs and try not to drool on your keyboard.

The Surface shares some measurements with the full-size iPad (1.5 pounds, 0.4 inches thick). But at 10.8 by 6.7 inches, it’s a wider, thinner rectangle, a better fit for movie playback. It has stereo speakers instead of mono. Both front and back video cameras are 720p high definition.

It has ports and jacks that iPad owners can only dream about: a memory-card slot to expand the storage, a video output jack and a USB 2.0 jack. You can connect almost any USB device: keyboard, mouse, flash drive, speakers, hard drive and so on.

Each Surface model has double the storage of the same-price iPad. For example, the $500 Surface offers 32 gigabytes; the 64-gig Surface is $600.

There are some disappointments on the spec sheet. The battery life is advertised as eight to 10 hours, less than the iPad. There’s no cellular version; it’s Wi-Fi only. The screen is very sharp (1,366 by 768 pixels), but it doesn’t approach the iPad’s Retina screen clarity (2,048 by 1,536 pixels).

And you can charge the Surface only from its wall adapter — not from a computer’s USB jack. Microsoft’s reasoning is that you won’t have a computer to charge from, since your days of carrying both a tablet and a laptop are over. Besides, a wall outlet recharges far faster than USB can.

The front is all touch screen. The edges of the black magnesium body are angled and crisp, like a prop from a Batman movie.

Then there’s the kickstand. The lower half of the back is a hinged panel, held shut magnetically until you pop it out with a fingernail. It snaps to a 22-degree angle, ready to prop the tablet sturdily upright.

A lesser kickstand would add weight, bulk or ugliness. But this one is razor-thin and disappears completely when you’re not using it.

You do use it, though — especially when you flip open the optional keyboard.

Yes, keyboard. You know Apple’s magnetically hinged iPad cover? Microsoft’s Touch Cover is the same idea — same magnet hinge — except that on the inside, there are key shapes, and even a trackpad, formed from slightly raised, fuzzy material. Flip the cover open, flip out the kickstand and boom: you have what amounts to a 1.5-pound PC that sets up anywhere.

This is nothing like those Bluetooth keyboard cases for the iPad. First, the Touch Cover is much, much thinner, 0.13 inches, cardboard thin. Second, it’s not Bluetooth; there’s no setup and no battery hit. The magnet clicks, and keyboard is ready for typing. Third, when you want just a tablet, the keyboard flips around against the back. The Surface automatically disables its keys and displays the on-screen keyboard when it’s time to type.

You can buy this cover, in a choice of colors, with the Surface for $100, or later for $120.

It’s an incredibly slick idea, but the keys don’t move. You’re pounding a flat surface. If you type too fast, the keyboard skips letters. (“If you type 80 words a minute on a keyboard and 20-30 on glass, you should be in the 50s on the Touch Cover,” says a Microsoft representative.)